STATE HOUSE ROUNDUP -- Political climate change

By Matt Murphy STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

Monday

Feb 25, 2019 at 9:30 AM

A recap and analysis of the week in state government.

Snow. Melt. Repeat.

The traditional week of February school vacations brought a lull to an already sleepy State House as winter reared its head in fits and starts and minor snow piles were washed away by warming spring-like temperatures.

It was around these snow squalls and the Feb. 18 Presidents Day holiday that the new chairmen of the House and Senate Ways and Means committees and their staffs sought to acclimate themselves to the new roles and plot a course for budget hearings, expected to start soon.

It wasn't quite Allston Christmas, but vacation week also allowed time for legislators not named Aaron Michlewitz and Michael Rodrigues, but still taking on new committee assignments and chairmanships, to pack up their old offices and move into their new digs.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo, who hasn't moved his State House office in more than 10 years, gave all members of the Legislature something new to think about when he rolled out a 10-year, $1 billion proposal to invest in municipal efforts to counteract climate change. Reminiscent of Gov. Deval Patrick's $1 billion life sciences initiative, it would be a grant program covered by state borrowing.

The proposal, on the heels of Gov. Charlie Baker's stepped-up efforts to address climate change impacts, reflects a bit of a shift on Beacon Hill, with the House and the Corner Office taking a step closer to the Senate, which for several years has been trying to advance a bulked-up clean energy and climate change adaptation agenda.

Baker this year has also proposed a $1 billion investment over the next decade, but has proposed to pay for it with increased real estate transfer fees.

The weather may have been on a seesaw, but it wasn't enough to keep anyone grounded. Especially not Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, who saw each other only as their planes crisscrossed paths along the East Coast.

Polito spent most of the week in Florida, while Baker returned from Florida Feb. 18 only to hop back on a plane Feb. 21 for D.C. as Polito was on her way home. Baker was in Washington all weekend for the National Governors Association winter meetings, where he was set to lead a discussion of health care cost control and take part in various meetings with fellow governors.

The governor was also expected to be among GOP governors Feb. 22 at a dinner organized by the Republican Governors Association where President Donald Trump planned to speak to them.

While Baker may have gotten plenty of face time with Trump and members of his administration, he wouldn't have to explain why Massachusetts is trying to stop the White House from building a southern border wall.

That's because Attorney General Maura Healey has elected, for now, not to join the 16 other states suing Trump over his decision to declare a national emergency in order to access the funds he needs to build the wall.

Healey called the national emergency declaration made Feb. 15 an "illegal power grab" by the president, and said she is "working to determine the full scope and impact on Massachusetts" in order to bring the strongest case she can, if she brings it at all.

Baker, meanwhile, has drawn criticism from the Democratic Party for his more-reserved stance, urging Congress and the administration to put aside politics and work together toward comprehensive immigration reform.

The weather was also not enough to make Kurt Schwartz nostalgic for the days of riding out a winter storm in the Framingham emergency bunker. Schwartz didn't even get one good blizzard in his final winter as Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency director before he plans to move along to whatever's next.

With very little in the way of explanation, the Baker administration thanked Schwartz last week for 30 years of public service and welcomed the new MEMA director from Philadelphia, Samantha Phillips. Phillips started Feb. 25, and Schwartz's next destination is unclear with the administration offering only opaque answers to questions about how voluntary his exit was from state government.

"#transition," one senior official texted.

Schwartz, however, wasn't the only administration official on the move, with Undersecretary of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation John Chapman giving way to Edward Palleschi and Terry MacCormack and Maura Driscoll joining the administration's press shop from the Baker-Polito campaign.

The Baker administration got good news from Maine last week after new Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, announced that she will support the transmission project that Massachusetts is relying on to make good on a law and procurement to bring large-scale Canadian hydropower to the state.

The demise of one controversial project to run a transmission line through New Hampshire already almost derailed the state's hydro dreams, and the Maine project was starting to take on a similar feel. Mills, however, struck a deal that will deliver economic and environmental benefits to Maine in exchange for the power line.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission is also looking to gain clarity on a major economic development project.

With the Encore Boston Harbor hotel and casino hoping to open just four months from now and with new Gaming Commission Chairwoman Cathy Judd-Stein settling into the role, the Gaming Commission moved last week to put the Steve Wynn matter behind them one way or another.

After hours behind closed doors, the commission voted unanimously Feb. 20 to direct its lawyers to work toward a final settlement with Wynn over disputed materials that Wynn has alleged in the Nevada courts were inappropriately obtained by Massachusetts investigators.

A settlement in the case would clear the path for Gaming Commission investigators to finalize their report on what, if anything, Wynn Resorts executives knew about the allegations of sexual assault against Wynn when the commission reviewed and approved the company's license to operate a casino in Everett.

That it turn would allow the commission to make a decision once and for all on whether Wynn Resorts can keep its license, or if that shimmering structure lighting up the Everett skyline needs to be mothballed for now.